40’s movies marathon – part 114

The Loves of Carmen (1948, USA, Vidor)

Rita Hayworth doesn’t look at all like a gypsy in 19th century Spain, she looks like a Hollywood actress in a technicolor movie. But she’s a non-gypsy in non-Spain who can violate the spirit of the Hays Code with the slightest twitch of an eyebrow, so who cares? Watched it all.

It was clever of Roald Amundsen to plan to go to the North Pole, and then surprise Scott by racing him for Antarctica – but it’s not cricket. Watched: 30 minutes, then fast forwarded to see the Norwegian flag on the South Pole. Muahaha – screw cricket!

Watching this and knowing that this was a low point in Disney history, when Walt didn’t really care about animated features and they were just trying to make ends meet by churning out cheap collections of shorts, makes you feel a bit humble. Pecos Bill above, and here’s Bumble Boogie. Watched it all.

Kirk Douglas is such as perfect asshole in his early movies, a walking magnet for hate. You just want to kick him and punch him, and you know it’ll feel good. What makes him different from Errol Flynn is that Kirk Douglas will get what’s coming to him by the end of the movie, and that makes it all okay. Watched: 19 minutes.